Initiated in 1998, the Queer Youth Digital Video Project chooses six to eight youth to make a short video for the Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival. Participants are guided through a series of workshops by Inside Out and Charles Street Video that teaches them everything from development to editing to final post-production all in a queer-positive environment. The final videos are premiered at the Inside Out Festival in May.

How Can I See These Videos?

We distribute free compilation tapes of Queer Youth Project to various community organizations that work with queer youth and do anti-homophobia education. If your organization is interested, then please contact us at 416.977.6847 or inside@insideout.ca

All Ideas and No Outlet?
Channel Them Into the Queer Youth Digital Video Project

Present us with your own saucy perspective being queer and young and having no outlet for your unique perspective - Inside Out and Charles Street Video want you as one of the participants this year, and we'll teach you how to develop your script, how to use a digital camera and how to edit YOUR 5 minute video to be premiered at the Inside Out Festival in May 2009!

10th Anniversary Queer Youth Digital Video Project

Nine talented, enthusiastic young people with something to say have spent the winter learning the A to Zs of no-budget filmmaking. Each participant brings style, humour, creativity and a unique perspective to the screen in this stellar series of short videos. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Project, several of Toronto’s best and brightest film and video makers showed their support by acting as mentors for these up-and-coming artists throughout the process. Proudly co-presented for a decade by Inside Out and Charles Street Video, this program is at the heart of the queer Canadian film community, year’s newest video makers!

Revisiting Our Youth: Award-Winning Shorts from the Queer Youth Digital Video Project

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Queer Youth Digital Video Project, Inside Out takes a look back. To date, seventy youths have produced their first videos through the Project and each one is a winner in our minds but the five works listed below won further accolades.

Hello, My Name Is Herman
Prepare to meet the filmmaker’s 91-year-old grandpa, Herman.
Language: English

Ohm-ma
A loving video letter from a young, queer Korean-Canadian woman to her mother.
Language: English

In Search of My Chinese Girlfriend
Chinese lesbian desperately seeks same. Must fetishize intra-racial dating.
Language: English/ Cantonese with Eng Subtitles

In the Dark
When a woman wants another woman, how far will she go? Language: English

Even Blue
A boy confesses to idolizing his sister and questioning his sexual identity.
Language: English